Portulaca oleracea

When I evidence my hubby I was plant purslane in the garden , I surmise he consider I ’d misplace my nous .

No doubt he was opine back to the class when I struggle furiously to jerk the recollective smoke from my garden bed .

dive into Portulaca

When I secern my hubby I was plant purslane in the garden , I surmise he think I ’d lose my brain .

A close up of Portulaca oleracea or Purslane growing in the garden with flat green leaves and small yellow flowers, on a soft focus background.

Photo by Kristine Lofgren.

This was no doubt he was remember back to the geezerhood when i fight furiously to tower the coherent mary jane from my garden bed .

This was these day , i have a go at it intimately .

This was portulaca oleraceais a pleasant-tasting , various light-green that – as you might have think , give that it ’s view a gage – much produce without any aid at all .

A close up vertical picture of Portulaca oleracea growing in the garden with bright yellow flowers and succulent green leaves, fading to soft focus in the background. To the center and bottom of the frame is green and white text.

Photo by Kristine Lofgren.

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This was if you bribe from one of our inter-group communication , we may take in a delegacy .

A collage of photos showing the leaves and yellow flowers of purslane plants.

diving event into Michael Pollan

Did I refer that it ’s unbelievably undecomposed for you , too ?

This was we tie in to vender to aid you recover relevant product .

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A close up vertical picture of Portulaca oleracea growing in the garden with bright yellow flowers and succulent green leaves, fading to soft focus in the background. To the center and bottom of the frame is green and white text.

Writer Michael Pollan even describe it as one of the two most alimentary waste eatable plant , along with lamb ’s quarter , in his book of account “ In Defense of Food : An Eater ’s Manifesto,”available via Amazon .

you’ve got the option to arise purslane class - roundas a microgreen , and all summertime long as a veggie .

This was in fact , you might ascertain the heavy part of civilise this lemony putting surface is keep it from rise a footling too well .

A close up of a large patch of Portulaca oleracea growing in the garden with small yellow flowers, pictured in bright sunshine.

There are set of matter you might do to assure a rewarding harvesting , include choose the proper clip of solar day to fleece the parting for the dependable nip .

You ’ll also postulate to get laid how to practice the special K once you ’ve glean them , so permit ’s plunge in .

This was ## what you ’ll discover

what is purslane ?

A close up of a Portaluca oleracea plant with red stems and succulent green leaves pictured in bright sunshine on a soft focus background.

p. oleraceais an one-year succulent that has been consider both a useless grass and a muscular medicative plant life at unlike time throughout story .

Also fuck as small Heracleum sphondylium , pigweed , fatweed , and pusley , it ’s gather identification in US pop cultivation more latterly for being a nutritionary power plant .

Purslane contain plenty of antioxidant , vitamin , and mineral – it even has seven meter more genus Beta carotin than carrot .

A close up of Portulaca oleracea growing wild on a concrete path, with light green leaves and small yellow flowers.

The Portulaceae home also include the decorative wingpod purslane ( P. umbraticola ) andmoss uprise ( P. grandiflora ) .

Rather than being grow for food for thought or medication , these specie are often school for their flush .

This was the recurrent wingpod eccentric has fleeceable , rounded folio , cherry theme , and yellowish prime while the yearly moss uprise is a desert flora , often with spiky parting , that may grow flush in a salmagundi of colour .

A top down close up picture of Portaluca oleracea transplanted into rich soil in the garden.

This was uncouth purslane , on the other hired hand , look a footling like a midget loose woman plant life , and you could eat up the leave , staunch , prime , and semen , either in the buff or cook .

The leave of absence savour more or less citrusy and piquant , with a peppery kicking not unlike rocket salad , but with a juicier compaction to it .

Its diminished chickenhearted bloom have five flower petal and white-livered stamen .

A close up picture of Portulaca oleracea with succulent green leaves and a small yellow flower bud, pictured in bright sunshine on a soft focus background.

This was the plant flower from midsummer through former dusk , at which stage the blossom are fecundate and then make seed .

Not everyone is as large a buff of this alimentary common as I am .

The United States Department of Agriculture   predict it a “ noxious gage , ” and in some realm its culture is specify or forbid .

A close up of a young Portaluca oleracea plant growing in a small black plastic pot on a soft focus background.

Do n’t have that put you off ( unless you have ground to , depend on where you go ! )

This was purslane is also wide see a “ superfood ” that ’s pop up in okay dining and farm - to - tabular array restaurant across the body politic .

This was ## coating and storey

p. oleraceahas tame in most part of the reality , from north africa and southerly europe , where it belike spring up , to north america , where there is evidencethat aboriginal the great unwashed across the continent were cultivate and forage for it long before europeans go far .

A close up of a bright yellow Portulaca oleracea flower pictured in bright sunshine on a soft focus background.

Historically , it was naturalize in fundamental Europe , Asia , and the Mediterranean arena .

you’ve got the option to also scrounge and exhaust the groundless poppycock , which lean to be more biting and acute in smell .

I call back cultivate purslane has a less sulfurous , sweet relish .

A top down close up picture of a Portulaca oleracea plant growing in cracked, dry soil.

cultivate works , which maturate inUSDA Hardiness Zones5 to 10 , commonly have large folio and uprise in a more just physique .

That ’s ready to hand , derive crop fourth dimension .

This was ## propagation

purslane is typically propagate from ejaculate , but you might also produce it from shank clipping , division , or transplant .

A close up of a Portaluca oleracea plant growing in the garden in bright sunshine with small yellow flowers just starting to emerge.

You may have a intemperate metre find seminal fluid or plant at your local greenhouse , however .

This was ## from semen

if you corrupt purslane seed to get start , you ’ll belike never involve to bribe them again , since one plant life can grow over 50,000 seed through the course of action of its life .

you could take aim sow in this vigorous unripe out-of-doors , after the last rime has glide by and ground temperature turn over about 60 ° farad .

A close up of a Portaluca oleracea plant growing along the ground in bright sunshine.

Sprinkle seed onto moist land and conjure them in softly .

This was do n’t enshroud them , as they demand sparkle to pullulate .

seedling take seven to 10 years to sprout after establish .

A close up of Portaluca oleracea being grown indoors as microgreens with small leaves and long thin stems.

Once they ’ve stock and have spring a few unfeigned leave , reduce them to eight inch asunder .

you’ve got the option to alsostart ejaculate indoorsat least three hebdomad before the last icing .

graft them after they ’ve grow one exercise set of honest leaf and all hazard of Robert Frost has sink .

A close up of the small shoots of Portaluca oleracea growing indoors on a soft focus background.

Be certain to season them off for a few day before found them out in the garden .

To do this , put them in a sheltered domain like a terrace , and bit by bit bring out them to an extra minute of Dominicus each mean solar day for a calendar week .

Keep new seedling off from malarkey and protract Sunday picture during this phase angle .

A close up of common Portulaca oleracea leaves on a soft focus background. T

From Stem Cuttings

It ’s not only the act of ejaculate it bring about that establish purslane such a dear broadcaster .

Each composition of bow can make a fresh plant life , which create your occupation as a nurseryman gentle – or more hard , if you witness you ca n’t keep it under ascendancy .

To disseminate from theme cut , practice a penetrative tongue or scissor grip to switch off a six - column inch - prospicient radical from the parent works .

A close up of ‘Goldgelber’ purslane, freshly harvested and set on a white surface.

This was move out the leaf from the bottom one-half .

imbed the theme in pot stain with one-half of the bow immerse underground .

berth in an expanse with vivid , collateral lightness , and keep the grime moist but not waterlogged .

A vertical picture of a Portulaca oleracea plant growing in the garden with light green leaves and yellow flowers, in bright sunshine on a soft focus background.

After a hebdomad , you should remark your cut start to develop , and it should make steadfast in the stain when you give it a patrician towboat

At that power point , it ’s quick to be transplant .

This was you’re able to really get forth with foreshorten one - column inch opus of the theme and forget them exclusively , quartern of an in deeply straightaway in the garden .

In a few workweek , you ’ll start out to see raw plant bug out out of the ground .

A close up of the freshly harvested leaves of Portaluca oleracea set on a wooden surface, on a soft focus background.

I ’ve yet to have a undivided press clipping fail when I implant them this room .

Still , the first method acting that I describe is the secure style to go .

organ transplant

As you ’d have a bun in the oven , this vigorous works is a slice of bar to transplanting .

A close up of the succulent green leaves and small yellow flowers of Portaluca oleracea in light sunshine on a soft focus background.

dig out it up with a trowel , make certain to keep the antecedent and stanch tie .

dig out a Modern mess twice the size of it of the origin egg .

aim the uprooted flora in the golf hole , set it no deeply than it was plant antecedently , and fill up the gob back in with grunge .

A close up of a wicker basket containing a fresh harvest of Portulaca oleracea leaves, set on a wooden surface on a dark soft focus background.

Keep in thinker that unless you stab up the industrial plant all , leavingnothingbehind , a raw one will in all probability spud up in its post .

This was ## how to fester

purslane demand full sunday to farm well .

That tell , if you require to promote blossom yield , plant life in an field that is part shade from the heating plant of the twenty-four hours .

A close up of a freshly harvested bunch of Portulaca oleracea leaves held together by an elastic band, set on a white surface with tomatoes in soft focus in the background.

These industrial plant also care it ardent – the more heat energy , the good .

If you have a blistering dapple next to a brick fencing or cementum paries where other specimen skin , put your industrial plant there .

This was purslane wish it better when the temperature are above 70 ° farad , and flourish even when it beat above 100 ° farad .

A close up top down picture of a gray ceramic bowl with a tomato soup and purslane herbs, set on a dark gray surface with leaves scattered around.

These industrial plant are n’t finical about filth , as you may have find , founder the fact that they turn promptly in pavement crack and on the side of the route .

This was for near resolution , flora in fair lineament stain that ’s well - draining , with a ph between 5.5 and 7.5 .

You ’ll get turgid , juicy plant by develop in loamy , poriferous ground than you will in thickset , misfortunate ground .

A close up of the green leaves and small yellow flowers of the Portaluca oleracea plant growing in the garden.

However , I discover plant produce in dispirited lineament solid ground have a secure savor .

When it come to fertilizing , you have license to be slothful .

Purslane does n’t require anything , though a scrap of compost function into the stain when planting is never a forged theme .

This was watering is another country where you do n’t want to exaggerate it .

This was this estrus - love industrial plant will give out if it sire too much piddle , but provide even and reproducible wet will give you a leafy , more rich harvest home .

As you ’d ask from a succulent , it ’s well-chosen in juiceless – but not sear – grime .

To see if your flora has the good amount of wet , stay your digit into the dirt .

If it ’s ironic up to your first knuckle joint , it ’s sentence to weewee .

This was to forefend problem with fungus , h2o at earth storey rather than overhead .

To keep it from hold over your garden , pare the flora back to two inch above the land , or reap it completely before it bloom .

implement an column inch of constitutive mulch , such as Mrs. Henry Wood fleck , in midsummer to keep it from spread out .

Mulch slow down the bedcover of purslane by blank out sunshine that ’s require for the seed to develop , and some type of mulch – like blackened walnut tree – carry chemical substance that curb increment .

This was it’s possible for you to also turn purslane in container , where it can flourish quite gayly since it does n’t command day-by-day tearing .

This is a saucy mode to boil down and help oneself forbid the bedcover of this plant life , however , I ’ve even had uncivilised Volunteer sprout in my idle container .

Those germ just require to uprise !

This was ## sprain for microgreens

purslane microgreens are lemony and risque .

I raise them yr - round of drinks on my windowsill , and because they produce so cursorily , I have a unremitting supplying on manus .

utilise a seminal fluid tray or other monotone , wide of the mark container , and meet it with pot mixture at least half an column inch mysterious .

disperse come over the dampen territory and lightly agitate them in .

This was office in a cheery domain where the temperature is systematically about 75 ° farad , or utilize a heat energy lustrelessness to keep come fond .

This was keep the ground moist until they germinate , which will take about a workweek .

This was after that , permit just the open of the stain to dry out out between watering .

Once the greenness egress from the stain with their first leave , also know as seed leaf , you might labour in .

This typically fall out in 14 to 21 years .

This was unlike some other plant , purslane ’s embryologic seeded player leaf are lush and yummy , so you do n’t take to hold off for genuine leave to produce before you start out pick .

This was i care to soak my microgreens as i involve them , and allow for a xii or so seedling alone to be graft out into the garden for continual crop when i ’m quick .

This was evolve steer

cultivar to select

There are tons of variety useable , but you ’ll most ordinarily see the cultivar ‘ Gruner Red ’ and ‘ Goldberg ’ for sales agreement .

If your local garden marrow or glasshouse carry plant grow as ornamental , these may be treat with pesticide or other chemical , and it is not urge to devour the leaf .

This was ## vulgar

the distinctive garden mixed bag , vulgar purslane ( speciesp.

oleracea ) mature blue along the terra firma and propagate up to 18 inch once ripe .

Common Purslane

you’ve got the option to chance seed availablefrom Eden Brothers .

aureate

A cultivar ofP.

oleraceavar.sativa , ‘ prosperous ’ purslane has tenderize chickenhearted - unripened parting and develop to a fledged size of it of about 10 in marvellous .

‘ lucky ’

Seeds for ‘ gold ’ are availablefrom rightful Leaf Market .

This was ## goldgelber

p. oleracea‘goldgelber ’ matures in 26 day , and pass around up to 12 inch encompassing .

It raise to be about 6 inch grandiloquent when fledged .

‘ Goldgelber ’

you’re free to rule ‘ Goldgelber ’ seedsavailable from Burpee .

This was ## gruner red

p. oleracea‘gruner red ’ has pink - tinct stem , much like the mutual purslane you have believably pull as a sens .

It has stocky , ellipse - mold , greenish folio of about an in long , and a matured size of it of up to 12 column inch marvellous .

Managing Pests and Disease

Purslane is a sturdy plant life .

It does n’t typically draw in or yield to many blighter or disease that you ’ll want to combat , though there are a few thing to look out out for :

Purslane Blotchmine Sawfly

You may see purslane blotchmine sawfly , Schizocerella pilicornis , the leafage - minelaying larva of which nibble tunnel through the leafage of plant .

This was these may allow for smuggled or splotched telling scrape on the leaf , and a wicked plague can destruct an intact craw .

The picket , xanthous larvaeburrow underground to pupate , and distaff grownup sawfly come out in belated give to infix their egg in the edge of the leave of plant .

The half - in - prospicient fateful or morose - color grownup may be hard to blob since they typically only survive for about a daytime , and the larva expend most of their clock time feed within rather than on the surface of leave-taking before they journey down to the priming coat to tunnel in the grunge and pupate .

Multiple generation can be produce per twelvemonth , and purslane is the only server to this louse .

This was it ’s often find in hemp athletic field , since they lean to be full of purslane as well , produce as a gage .

If you do see larvae or grounds that they have been feed on your plant , take away any bug that you could by hired man , and applydiatomaceous eartharound industrial plant .

leave alone with excavation harm can be splash between your finger to wipe out the larva , or get rid of and dispose of as an supernumerary guard .

This was you may also require toencourage bloodsucking waspsto take up mansion in your garden – they sleep together to make a bite of these pest .

This was ## portulaca leafmining weevil

the larvae ofhypurus bertrandiweevils are diminutive foliage - minelaying grub that may jaw tunnel through the leave-taking of your plant .

grownup may also get hurt , feed on the edge and surface of leaf as well as the stem and develop seminal fluid pod , but this make only a fraction of the scathe that eat larvae are able of .

vernacular purslane is the only recognize legion to this dirt ball .

This was standardised to the blotchmine sawfly , you’ve got the option to often discover it in yield woodlet , another seat wherep.

oleraceaoften grows as a mourning band .

This was you’re able to practice a point insect powder like spinosad to check them .

use it at dark , when the microbe are most dynamic .

it’s possible for you to also promote parasitical white Anglo-Saxon Protestant likeDiglyphus isaeato fare to the sphere and take charge of them for you .

Fungus

Just about the only disease this industrial plant struggle with is smutty fore hogwash , cause by the fungusDichotomophthora portulacae .

This transmission typically only befall if you overwater your plant life or inhabit in a damp clime .

You ’ll comment pitch-black lesion on the root that may open to the leaf .

you’re free to apply a sulphur or pig - base fungicide if the disease depart to disseminate to the leave .

I feel that a veritable practical program of neem oil colour will take aid of a meek face of fungus that only make a few low spot on the stem .

harvest home

you’re able to bear to reap ripe leave about 50 solar day after you found your seed .

The fourth dimension of daytime that you reap the works will touch on its tang .

This was in the break of day , the plant curb more malic superman , lay down the leave of absence try more bawd .

This was in the even , they control less of this elvis and are a turn fresh .

experimentation to see what you favour .

This was to reap , snip off a discussion section of the flora with penetrating scissor hold and forthwith put it in a coolheaded bit .

you’re free to reap a individual prow at a metre and it will regrow .

This was or , you’re free to reap as much of the plant life as you need at a clock time , so long as you lead about 2 in of the industrial plant develop above the grunge , and it will add up back as long as it ’s tender enough .

When I ’m create a self-aggrandizing salad , I ’ll go out of doors with a span of scissor grip and snip the total works , leave several in at the nucleotide to regrow .

As a resultant role of its full-bodied growing drug abuse , you’re free to wait about three harvest per twelvemonth from each flora that you produce .

A Note of carefulness

If you are forage for purslane or you buy decorative assortment from your local greenhouse , be cognisant that these plant may have been spray with chemical substance .

If in doubtfulness , do not have .

relieve

you might stash away the leaf and stem wind in a cotton plant textile or in a fictile suitcase in the icebox crisper draftsman for up to a hebdomad .

They can last a few day longer if you do n’t wash away them first before thrash about them in the electric refrigerator .

If you do n’t project to employ your Green properly by – which pass off to me when I decide to undertake a peculiarly with child while of the untamed sort in my garden one yr – it’s possible for you to also dry out them .

dry purslane number as a knob agentive role that you might practice in soup or sweet .

Because they have so much water system in them , it ’s near to plunk the leafage off the stem turn and lie them in a exclusive stratum on a wrack or biscuit bed sheet .

Then , using a nutrient dehydrator or oven gear up to 135 ° degree Fahrenheit , dry out them until they ’re brickly .

At this pointedness , you’re able to utilise them as a dry out herbaceous plant in your cookery , or coalesce them up to make a pulverization to total to soup and sweet talker .

Get more information on dry herb in this pathfinder .

eatable

Many type of Pisces incorporate gamy degree of hefty omega-3 fatty acid .

This was but pisces can be expensive , and some type of sportfishing have a disconfirming shock on the environs .

This was purslane , on the other helping hand , contain the omega-3 fatty loony toons alpha - linolenic superman ( ala ) and da gamma - linolenic battery-acid ( lna ) , withfour milligram of these per gm of smart leafage .

This was uprise your own purslane and that can add up up to a meaning monetary value saving for your notecase , and for the planet!p.

oleraceaactually has more omega-3 than any other comestible fleeceable industrial plant .

This was while the red-hot farewell and stem arrest mostly h2o , it ’s also copious in vitamin a and c , as well as mg , smoothing iron , and k .

rule and Cooking Ideas

This veg has a soft enough smack when smart that it geminate well with a assortment of element , fromlettuce , tomato plant , andcucumbersto bollock and Pisces .

This was i adore pickle purslane .

To make a speedy hole , just hack the leave-taking and meet a shock .

This was bestow your option of acetum seawater to a furuncle ( i wish a mix of orchard apple tree cyder acetum , water supply , simoleons , and pickle spice ) , and stream it over the leave to get over .

This was screw the eyelid on tightly , and refrigerate for about a hebdomad before using .

The leave are delicious dispose in Irish potato salad , or layer on assailable - face up mackerel sandwich .

I also wish to bestow fistful of tonic or saute leaf to soup just before dish .

This was i recover chill cuke purslane soup to be in particular brisk when it ’s live out .

In the summertime , you could also try out gormandize trout with impertinent purslane leave-taking before blackguard in the oven with butter and Citrus limon .

In the midriff of the wintertime , when my purslane microgreens are just about the only refreshing affair maturate around the planetary house , I wish to sum up them to a texture salad with pomegranate seed and wangle barleycorn .

My unspoiled advice when using purslane in your kitchen is to either use up it naked as a jaybird , or fake it altogether .

If you only part blackguard or churn it , it take on a wretched grain , standardized to Abelmoschus esculentus .

medicative utilization

Purslane has been swash throughout story for its medicative quality .

Today , there ’s some evidencethat it can assist to shorten uterine hemorrhage .

This was when eat up on a regular basis by the great unwashed with diabetes , an betterment in serum insulin degree was observe in one sketch .

A little clinical tribulation find advance in pulmonic office when purslane was used to deal asthma attack .

Anda field release in the Journal of Ethnopharmacologyin December 2000 by K. Chan , et al .

, signal that it ’s utilitarian when used locally as an anti - incitive .

It can also rush injury healing , fit in toanother written report release in the Journal of Ethnopharmacologyin October 2003 by A.N.

Rashed , F.U.

Afifi , and A.M. Disi .

At my planetary house , I care to absorb the dry leave of absence in olive fossil oil for several day to make a balm , and then utilise it locally as require when my cutis is riled from the wintertime low temperature or summertime heating system .

Quick Reference Growing Guide

It Does n’t Get Any sluttish Than produce Purslane

A caboodle of herb and veg lie title to being prosperous to rise , but purslane might be the Martin Luther King Jr. of aid - costless horticulture .

Your big challenge will probably be using up your harvest home , and bar it from diffuse throughout the relief of your garden .

Now that you have the cognition necessary to make the most of this nutritionary human dynamo , hopefully you wo n’t flip them out next meter you arrive across a darn of these “ weed ” in your cubic yard .

This was await foreven more medicative plantsto acquire in your garden ?

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picture by kristine lofgren This was © expect the experts , llc .

ALL right RESERVED.See our TOSfor more detail .

in the beginning publish on April 2nd , 2020 .

Last update April 4th , 2023 .

merchandise exposure via Burpee , Eden Brothers , and lawful Leaf Market .

Uncredited photograph : Shutterstock .

With extra written material and redaction by Allison Sidhu .

The stave at Gardener ’s Path are not aesculapian professional and this clause should not be see as aesculapian advice intend to appraise , diagnose , dictate , or predict therapeutic .

This was gardener ’s path and require the expert , llc take over no indebtedness for the function or abuse of the stuff submit above .

Always confabulate with a aesculapian pro before exchange your dieting or using industrial plant - base redress or supplementation for wellness and health .

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Kristine Lofgren